one dead bee

This morning I inspected the front of the hive and found one dead bee lying at the entrance on the landing board. This did not help with my concerns for them and their hour long journey in the back of my car last night.

the sign was not really that necessary, just a lot of fun

Ninety percent of me knew that they were all right. Ninety percent knew that they had found one of their own expired and simply dragged them out of the hive ready for disposal with the morning air too cool to fly the body the regulation two hundred yards that the ‘undertaker bees’ are supposed to do.

the tops of the posts still need cut off . I will borrow a sabre saw from my brother in law for that.

By eleven o’clock I had still seen no signs of activity at the hive. The other pessimistic ten percent of me began to try and increase its foot hold. It was a warm day and other buzzy creatures were about themselves and happy. Logic told me that things like the humble bee (or bumble) are built for the cold air with their internal heating and bumbling.

In another week or so I will do a proper inspection and transfer them into one of my new hives and keep the one they came in as another spare.

At two o’clock I returned to see lots of bees all over the front of the hive. Obviously they were ok and beginning to enjoy the hot day and hopefully their new surroundings at the cottage.

Of course I drove with the sign, it gave me something to chuckle at on the way home. I am uncertain if you want to know what I paid or if you just wanted to say that? It was a painful two hundred pounds. I intednted to buy a ‘nuc’ for around £90 but he offered to sell the whole hive, his strongest at the site, and an additional super. If it is a good summer and if we sell all the honey we could easily get that back with profit but that is not why we got them. Even when the earth was younger and I was impatiently small, I have always wanted bees (or ants).